LABOUR MINISTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 October 1941, Page 6

LABOUR MINISTRY

' FORMATION IN AUSTRALIA TAKING OFFICE ON TUESDAY. ELECTION OF PERSONNEL BY CAUCUS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day. 1.25 a.m.) CANBERRA, This Day. The new Labour Ministry will be sworn in on Tuesday. The personnel will be chosen by a Labour caucus ballot on Monday and Mr Curtin will then allot portfnllios. Mr Curtin said his Government would carry on a maximum war effort and would expect the co-operation, as members of the War Advisory Council, of members of the former Ministry. He added that he was assured of the support of the Independents, Messrs Coles and Wilson. “I am confident," he stated, “that the '’Labour Government will be a stable Government. It will devote itself with singleness of purpose to achieving the desire of the whole Australian people—a maximum war effort, with' a distribution of the inevitable burdens of war as fairly as possible over the whole community." Mr Curtin said his Government would proceed immediately to recast the Budget. With the support of Messrs Coles and Wilson, Labour, after appointing a Speaker, will have a majority of one in the House of Representatives. The party voting will be: — Labour Government, 37; United Australia Party and United Country Party Opposition, 36. Labour faces a difficult position in the Senate, where the voting strengths are: United Australia and Country parties, 19; Labour, 16. The “Daily Telegraph,” in a leader, says: “Labour is in office, but is it in power? The big question is: Can Labour provide a stable Government? Australia will give the Labour Party its chance, but it does not want a continuance of the present political set-up under a new label.”